Topological One-Way Large-Area Waveguide States in Magnetic Photonic Crystals

We have theoretically and experimentally achieved large-area one-way transport by using hetero-structures consisting of a domain of an ordinary photonic crystal sandwiched between two domains of magnetic photonic crystals. The nonmagnetized domain carries two orthogonal one-way waveguide states which have amplitude uniformly distributed over a large area. We show that such one-way waveguide states can be used to abruptly narrow the beam width of an extended state to concentrate energy, and the transport is robust against different kinds of defects and imperfections. They are also immune to the Anderson-type localization when large randomness is introduced.

Automated summary

By utilizing hetero-structures of photonic crystals, we have achieved large-area one-way transport with uniformly distributed one-way waveguide states, which can concentrate energy and are robust against defects and localization effects.